LOTE - Japanese

Tinternvale Primary School students study Japanese for one hour a week. Japanese classes are held in the dedicated Japanese classroom.

Prep students learn mainly cultural Japanese but from year one to year six the students are taught to read, write and speak in Japanese.

Students are introduced to Japanese with a focus on communicating in Japanese and developing an understanding of the language, as well as knowledge of the country, Japanese people and their culture. The students listen to and begin to speak in Japanese and respond to greetings, simple questions and instructions, through play, games, songs and actions. Listening, speaking, reading and writing are developed.

The use of stories, pictures, video clips, folk tales and movies, that present typical Japanese children’s culture, further help to bring that other culture closer. Role-plays in Japanese language create a framework to allow the students to apply what they have been learning.

Students learn to recognise and write Hiragana and simple Kanji characters. Students learn about Japan as a country, investigating topics such as famous places, festivals, traditions and pop culture and these aspects connect to overarching school based themes.

The comparison of lifestyle and culture of Japan and Australia also provides an insight into another culture other than their own.

In Japanese students also learn through the use technology such as computers, iPads, flip cameras and the electronic whiteboard. Engagement is elicited through interest based investigations built on the base of a scaffold of structured understandings.